In the casino industry, gaming machines, such as slot machines, fruit machines, or poker machines, have in recent years become one of the more popular, exciting, and sophisticated wagering activities available at casinos and other gambling locations. At the same time, gaming machines have also become a source of greater revenue for gaming establishments.
It is known to provide a gaming system such as a video slot machine wherein symbols are displayed as a plurality of virtual reels on a video display. Each reel comprises a plurality of symbols arranged in a predetermined sequence. Typically, when a reel stops, a plurality of symbols of each reel are visible on the display. For example, three symbols of each reel. While the stopping position of the reel can be chosen in a number of different ways, in all cases, the symbols which stop in the display are adjoining symbols in the symbol sequence. Typically, when spinning of the reels is simulated, symbols before the stopped symbols in the symbol sequence will be visible at least as the reel comes to a stop.